As some of you know, my son leaves for boot camp on Jan. 4th. My goal this year is to get him his first elk and his first buck. So far i am 1 for 2. Early elk season was a bust but we scored on opening day of deer season.
We head east every year to hunt mulies and leave the blacktails behind. On opening morning we left camp and arrived at our hunting area 2 hours before say light. Four people napping a jeep is not an easy task :bash: but we managed.
Come day light John and i headed to the area that my daughter (Rocky) named "Miller Gulch". It has been a good areas for us, we have taken 3 nice bucks over the last 5 years from the same area. As we walked down the road we glassed the small ravines ON either side of us looking for deer. While we were glassing we heard a noise below us and deer started funneling out from below. 8 does and one buck. I got a better look at the buck and seen that it was legal to harvest, so I told John to go for it. Rite as he got his cross hairs settled on the magic spot the deer walked away from us and over the ridge out of sight. We waited for it to appear and looked to our left and deer started to appear in the opposite ravine. The last deer was a buck, a legal buck and i told John to aim a little high to compensate for the distance (about 300-350 yards out). He fired a shot and missed, the bullet went rite over its back. He loaded again and shot a little to high :bash: John looked at me and said" this ones going on his heart (cross hairs that is) and no sooner then he squeezed the trigger the buck hoped, ran 30 yards up the hill, and fell to his death by the hands of son. The deer rolled about 200 feet down the hill and stopped only by a log laying on the hill side.
To make a long story short, we dragged the deer 1/4 mile down hill to the flat, and then dragged it another 1/4 mile to the jeep, it was as close as we could get it. We all worked hard that day, it kicked all our butts and were beat for the next two days and i have to hand it to my wife and daughter, they jumped right in and helped drag that monster out.
The next few days were filled with lots of hiking and glassing and not seeing another legal buck. Seen plenty of doe's and 2 points but no more legal bucks :bash:
Here is some pictures of John and his deer and my family out in the field.
The wife and I.
Rocky with her new Camo.
Got more to tell but have to head out in 10 minutes to try and fill more tags. Picking the wife up from work and heading east again.
You all have a good weekend and wish us luck.
We head east every year to hunt mulies and leave the blacktails behind. On opening morning we left camp and arrived at our hunting area 2 hours before say light. Four people napping a jeep is not an easy task :bash: but we managed.
Come day light John and i headed to the area that my daughter (Rocky) named "Miller Gulch". It has been a good areas for us, we have taken 3 nice bucks over the last 5 years from the same area. As we walked down the road we glassed the small ravines ON either side of us looking for deer. While we were glassing we heard a noise below us and deer started funneling out from below. 8 does and one buck. I got a better look at the buck and seen that it was legal to harvest, so I told John to go for it. Rite as he got his cross hairs settled on the magic spot the deer walked away from us and over the ridge out of sight. We waited for it to appear and looked to our left and deer started to appear in the opposite ravine. The last deer was a buck, a legal buck and i told John to aim a little high to compensate for the distance (about 300-350 yards out). He fired a shot and missed, the bullet went rite over its back. He loaded again and shot a little to high :bash: John looked at me and said" this ones going on his heart (cross hairs that is) and no sooner then he squeezed the trigger the buck hoped, ran 30 yards up the hill, and fell to his death by the hands of son. The deer rolled about 200 feet down the hill and stopped only by a log laying on the hill side.
To make a long story short, we dragged the deer 1/4 mile down hill to the flat, and then dragged it another 1/4 mile to the jeep, it was as close as we could get it. We all worked hard that day, it kicked all our butts and were beat for the next two days and i have to hand it to my wife and daughter, they jumped right in and helped drag that monster out.
The next few days were filled with lots of hiking and glassing and not seeing another legal buck. Seen plenty of doe's and 2 points but no more legal bucks :bash:
Here is some pictures of John and his deer and my family out in the field.
The wife and I.
Rocky with her new Camo.
Got more to tell but have to head out in 10 minutes to try and fill more tags. Picking the wife up from work and heading east again.
You all have a good weekend and wish us luck.
